Clarity is an absolutely essential ingredient for you to reach your full potential in business. Napoleon Hill, in his classic book Think and Grow Rich, said, “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” He goes on to explain why having a clear definition of what he wants to achieve is a critical factor in his success.
For business owners who really want to be “on purpose” for success and take their business to the next level, I define “clarity” as follows:
Clarity is determining exactly what results you want to achieve and when you want to achieve them.
The key word in that definition is “exactly.” If you don’t take the time to define your goal in exact terms, you’re not setting yourself up for success. Instead, you are setting yourself up for a guess.
That’s how it is.
A goal that is not clearly defined will not be clearly achieved. Part of the goal may be achieved, but you won’t be completely satisfied with the results unless you take the time to define the entire goal in advance.
So why is it so important to have clarity?
Without clarity, your business moves from place to place like a ship without a rudder. But clearly, you run your business “on purpose” and you will create amazing results, both for you and your clients!
This can be better understood with an example. Several years ago I worked with a business manager named Dan who helped run a company based in Massachusetts. dan had
some lofty ideas of what I wanted to achieve, but they weren’t defined in much detail. He also knew that he wanted to achieve a lot of results in a short period of time, but he didn’t have a good idea of how he was going to do it.
In other words, Dan was like many business owners and managers I have met over the years. He wanted to achieve a lot, but he needed help to get clarity on his ultimate goal and the timeframe for achieving it.
The first thing I did with Dan was help coach him to identify his most important short-term goal. Once this is done, Dan and I work together to figure out what time frame our goal would be to achieve this goal. And once we were clear about our goal and target timeline, both Dan and I felt much more confident about our chances for success.
In this case, Dan’s schedule turned out to be quite aggressive and we both faced a lot of opposition from people who thought it couldn’t be done. Fortunately, this story has a happy ending. Dan achieved his big goal and accomplished it within the four month period he had set for himself.
So how can you learn from Dan’s success and develop clarity for your business goals? Here are some questions to get you started:
1. Remember in Step One (“Understanding”) when you were asked how you measure
success in your business today? Well, you should use the answer to that fill-in-the-blank question below:
What have you accomplished in the last three months in your business in terms of _____________?
(i.e. typical fill-in-the-blank items are money, profit, or new customers)
2. What goal would you like to achieve in the next 90 days?
3. Once you achieve this goal, what do you want to do with the extra money and extra time? In other words, what do you personally get as a reward for achieving this goal?
4. Looking back, what was the best month you’ve had in your business in terms of ______________?
(insert your chosen measure back into the blank and then answer the question)
5. Can you summarize what happened that month (or that period)? In other words, what specific actions did you take that led to those amazing results?
Let’s use another example to show you how easy this process can be. Suppose a woman named Cindy is the proud owner of Cindy’s Teddy Bear Company, which she makes
Personalized teddy bears for children of celebrities and high-class families.
In last week’s article on Understanding, Cindy wrote that the two most important reasons she is in business are to positively affect the lives of children and to earn enough money to be financially free. Cindy also thought about how she measures her success and determined that the number of clients she has is most important to her.
Cindy came up with the following responses to the five clarity questions listed above:
1. In the last three months I have gained 72 new clients.
2. I would like to get 100 new customers in the next 90 days. I’ve never done this before so this is a very exciting goal for me!
3. When I reach my goal of 100 new clients, I will invest half of the profits in my personal financial freedom account and spend part of the profits on a week-long vacation in Mexico with my family.
4. In my best month, I gained 30 new clients.
5. During my best month, I think the main reason for my success was that I implemented a marketing campaign in a local community and followed every lead I got.
Good job on Step Two, Cindy! You are now ready to move on to Step Three.
Are you starting to get the picture and see how easy it can be to develop clarity on your own? When you focus on the questions above and answer them honestly, you will be placing the next brick on your boost base.
Take time in your diary this week to think about your answers to these questions. And if you have a business coach today, take the time to go over your thoughts on these questions with him or her, too.
Being very clear about what you want to achieve in your business in the next 90 days is a very important step in catapulting your business into massive momentum. Take action and get answers to these questions today.
You’ll be glad you did!